India: David vs. Goliath

The Biblical story needs no recounting. In parts of India today various Davids confront the goliath of the Indian state and large corporations. The people fighting back are poor, rural and marginalized. Many are Adivasi, indigenous. Some of the resistance groups, called Maoist or Naxalite, believe in armed struggle. Others are using Gandhian tactics of civil disobedience and non-violence. Arundhati Roy, the well-known writer and activist describes the situation, “People are being driven off their lands by mining companies, steel plants, dams, and other mega-projects. They are putting their bodies on the line to prevent the takeover of their lands and the destruction of their culture and environment. And as the water tables are dropping and the minerals that remain in the mountains are being taken out, we are going to confront a crisis from which we cannot return.”

Interview by David Barsamian.